Hiroko Yoshimoto is a Japanese-American artist who was born in Kobe, Japan and moved to Los Angeles as a teenager (US citizen since 1976). She holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Art from UCLA, graduating summa cum laude. Currently, she serves as a tenured professor at Ventura College, where she has also contributed her talents to stage set and costume design for the college’s production of Mozart’s opera "The Magic Flute." Yoshimoto was one of the founders of Studio 83 (1983-1999), an artists’ co-op group and for the Ventura College Friends of the Arts, a non-profit art scholarship fund-raising organization.